Dreamworld CEO addresses media

John Howard's 1996 triumph

It's twenty years since John Howard defeated Paul Keating to win the Prime Ministership.

John Howard's fondest memory from the 1996 federal election comes not from the campaign but the immediate aftermath, when he bunkered down with family, friends and advisers to watch the count in a Sydney hotel suite.

Both leaders were allocated two officials from the Australian Electoral Commission and a computer and, at precisely 6:20pm, Howard noticed a 16 per cent swing to the Coalition at a polling booth in east Portland, on the New South Wales central tablelands.

John Howard kisses his wife Janette following his election as prime minister in 1996. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

"That's terrific!" he recalls declaring, only to be brought back to earth by political adviser Grahame Morris.

"Steady on Tiger!" quipped Morris. "There are only 80 votes in that booth."

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Howard went into the campaign an overwhelming favourite to end Labor's 13 years in power under Bob Hawke and then Paul Keating, but years of failure had conditioned him to keep his expectations in check.

"When you've been in opposition for a long time, as we had been, and had elections when we didn't do as well as everybody thought we would do, your natural defence mechanism is to prepare yourself for disappointment," Howard tells Fairfax Media.

It was the first of four Howard victories, a record many new faces to Canberra would find difficult to comprehend in an era of revolving door leadership and disposable government.

This is why, as he prepared to be feted at a gala dinner on Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of his victory, Fairfax Media asked Howard to reflect on the reasons for his longevity and the art of political leadership.

John Howard casts his vote in the 2007 election that would see him thrown out of office and his own Sydney seat. Photo: Andrew Taylor

The first is simple enough. Having waited so long to get there, Howard was determined to dig in for a long innings. Interviewed after his first year in the job, he spoke of a 10-year transition to the next leader. No one laughed.

The others amount to a kind of check list that Malcolm Turnbull and his Labor opponent in Bill Shorten would do well to reflect upon.

Never miss a meal: When Howard entered Parliament in 1974, he resolved never to miss meals and never to be late for flights, confiding later: "I couldn't think of two things more likely to give you ulcers."

Throughout his political career, he kept this regimen and added other things to it: the daily walk, not snacking between meals and being able to refresh with a quick catnap during long days.

Make time to think: In a job driven by the diary, where almost every minute is allocated, one essential ingredient is the capacity to reflect and think.

"Clearly, a prime minister has got to attend a lot of functions and do an lot of things and be in the public domain almost constantly and keep up a solid media presence, all those things are crucial," says Howard. "But you also do need time to think and time to talk about things with people whose advice you value."

Clear the desk: "Clearing your desk of routine paper is very important, because if you don't do that, the routine becomes urgent and difficult," says Howard, who adds that he learnt this lesson as a solicitor.

The former PM says 90 per cent of paperwork that came across his desk could be given immediate tick and dispatched back to his department. "The other 10 per cent you had to think about a bit harder. You need to get the right technique, and the right balance of advisers to, first of all, know what the 10 per cent is, and then make the right decisions."

Keep the colleagues happy: "The key there is to listen and understand you are a creature of the party room," says Howard. "That's where you get your authority from. They choose you and you should never take that for granted.

"I had a rule. I always attended party meetings and I always waited until the very end. Often there'd only be a small number there towards the end of a joint party meeting and I'd still be there.

"I didn't ever want people to say I wasn't interested in their point of view."

Howard also made a habit of strolling over to the parliamentary dining room at lunchtime on sitting weeks and sitting with his MPs.

Maintain stability: While Turnbull has announced two reshuffles in his first five months, Howard stresses the importance of stability and continuity in the key positions.

"(Peter) Costello was quite outstanding as treasurer," he says, adding that the same could be said of Alexander Downer as foreign minister. During almost 12 years in office, the Howard government had the same prime minister, treasurer and foreign minister, a record unmatched in Australian history.

Do something: Howard says he understand Turnbull's decision not to proceed with an increase in the GST "in the face of politics" and will not be drawn on whether he would have made the same call.

But his message is emphatic: "You are elected to solve the nation's problems. I used to describe economic reform as participating in a never-ending footrace to an ever-receding finishing line. You never get there but you can't stop because, if you do, other people steam past you."

A leader also needs to respond to events. "I never dreamt when I was elected in March of 1996 that within two months we'd have something like (the) Port Arthur (massacre) or within the period I'd be prime minister, the whole world would be transformed by the threat of terrorism."

In pursuing reform and responding to events, Howard adopted a definition of leadership first articulated by his predecessor, Paul Keating.

"There are some issues in politics where you must stand in the middle of the road and dare people to run over you," he once said. "There are other issues where the art of good political leadership consists in listening and understanding and comprehending and absorbing and persuading and cajoling and explaining."